


Break the Wheel

by ElfMaidenOfLight



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Academy!Hux, Academy!Rose, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arkanis, Confrontation, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23043391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElfMaidenOfLight/pseuds/ElfMaidenOfLight
Summary: Armitage Hux, a newly-minted First Order Officer, and Engineering Specialist Rose Tico, both fresh from their graduation ceremony at the Academy, confront Hux's father, the Commandant.Written for the GingerRose Mini Exchange 2020.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 21
Kudos: 59
Collections: GingerRose Mini exchange 2020





	Break the Wheel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Huluppu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huluppu/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Huluppu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huluppu/pseuds/Huluppu) in the [GingerRose_Exchange](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/GingerRose_Exchange) collection. 



> **Prompt: Protective Rose. Hux & Rose in an established relationship, having to visit Brendol. During an argument, Brendol tries to strike Hux when his back is turned & Rose steps between them, literally showing Hux that she's got his back. Can be canonverse setting or AU.**

~*~

They stood in the small courtyard facing the Commandant’s personal quarters, a rather plain two-level building, it’s only notable feature a second-floor balcony, which jutted out from the study beyond.

In Hux’s memory he could see himself as a toddler, watching the goings-on in the square below from that very spot.

“You don’t have to do this.”

He turned to look at the woman next to him, Rose Tico, dressed in her Academy finest, just like him, except for the Engineering emblem upon her arm.

“Yes. I do,” he said.

“Everything’s packed. We can leave, right now.” She was doing her best to convince him. “We never have to come back. He doesn’t even have to know. He doesn’t _have_ _a_ _right_ to know.”

Hux shook his head, eyes closing briefly. “This is for my own good. Although… I do appreciate you coming with me.”

Rose’s warm hand squeezed his gloved one. “Of course.”

“I understand this is not the most pleasant post-graduation activity you could be participating in.”

She reached up, having to round up onto the balls of her feet to reach his face with her hand. Her warm palm cupped his cheek, dark eyes beseeching. “I’m here for _you_ , Hux. Because I love you.”

A small smile turned at the corners of his mouth. This woman. He was the luckiest fool in the entire galaxy. He covered her hand; kissed her palm.

Rose grinned. “Let’s get this over with. Then we can celebrate.”

Stepping up, he pressed the buzzer on the electronic display pad next to the door. After a moment, an older woman with dark brown hair, streaked with silver, answered.

“Maratelle,” Hux said flatly. Even a step down from the threshold, he was taller than she was.

The woman wrinkled her thin, hooked nose at the pair of them. “What do you want.”

“I wish to speak with my father.” His voice was as diplomatic as possible, as if he’d come calling on official Order business.

Maratelle worked her jaw, thinking. Eventually, she stepped aside to let them pass.

“Who is it?” A rough, guttural voice called from deeper within.

“It’s your son,” Maratelle replied, in a tone like she’d found a dead animal on their doorstep. “And his girlfriend from the Engineering Corps.”

There was a grunt of ascent in response as they moved further inside the residence. Hux hadn’t let go of Rose’s hand; if anything, she thought, his grip had only gotten stronger.

They passed the kitchenette, the hall to the smaller rooms, one of which had been Hux’s in his youth, and crossed into the little living space.

Rose had never been inside the Commandant’s residence before. It was sparsely furnished, but each piece that did grace the room screamed out in opulence. It was obvious Brendol favored classical, traditional styles, bombastic in their rich color and rare materials. On the floor, bright and elegant rugs smoothed over the otherwise cold, wide-tiled floors.

She caught a faint whiff of cigar smoke.

There, sitting in an over large chair with his barrel chest and greying ginger hair, was Commandant Brendol Hux.

She’d only ever seen Brendol from a distance. He was the supreme Commandant of the entire Academy, including the Engineering division, and while he gave innumerable speeches, he was hardly seen in the flesh around campus.

Up-close, he was even more imposing. There were certain aspects in his features that reminded her of the man by her side, but it mostly stopped with the superficial. She could see Brendol’s face was splotchy and red, dotted and creased with age and bitterness.

The man stood from his chair to full height, on par with Hux’s tall stature.

“Armitage,” the man growled in greeting, moving his way towards the small liquor cabinet near the window.

Despite his holding Rose’s hand, Hux stood at perfect attention, looking like a foreign visitor in the very rooms he grew up in. He indicated to Rose with his free hand; an upturned palm. “You remember Rose.”

The man’s fat lip curled upward as he opened a decanter, pouring himself a few fingers of liquid. “Yes. The prodigy.” He swirled the liquid in his glass before turning his hazel-green gaze to Rose. “You were plucked from some backwater planet, were you not?”

Rose held Brendol’s gaze with fierce determination. She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her, even if he was Commandant; not when she knew what kind of evil, twisted monster he was. Not when she knew how he got off on other people’s fear.

“Hay’s Minor, sir,” she answered.

“Ah yes, that trash heap.”

By her side, Hux’s face contorted with anger on her behalf. Despite all the years of abuse at Brendol’s hand, where hiding his genuine emotions would have been the most prudent method of survival, Armitage could never conceal his true, gut-churning anger from showing on his face.

“I suppose I should congratulate you both on your graduation,” Brendol grunted, as if any inkling of praise actually pained him, either unaware or choosing to ignore his son’s murderous gaze. “You’ll be a fine asset to the Order, Engineer.” He raised his glass lazily and took a large mouthful.

Hux’s fury coalesced into determination as he pressed his lips into a thin line. “That is what we’ve come to talk to you about.”

The man folded his thick arms over his chest. He sneered. “Don’t tell me you two are eloping or something equally as foolish.”

Rose felt her heart jump. They hadn’t discussed such things in detail, although she couldn’t deny how the fantasy haunted her some mornings, watching as Hux slept beside her in her tiny dormitory bed.

The older man coughed, clearing his throat with a rumble. “You should know by now not to expect well-wishes from myself or your mother, boy.”

Hux winced slightly, but Rose could still see it. It was an especially low-blow, she thought; in no way did Hux recognize Maratelle as motherly figure.

Hux waited a moment to speak, so he could collect himself against what was coming. He gently let go of Rose’s hand.

“Now that Rose and I have graduated from the Academy, we’ve decided we’re leaving.”

“Eh?” Brendol’s nose scrunched up, and Rose thought it made him look like he was getting ready for a perpetual sneeze.

Hux swallowed. He was an exceptional Officer, admired by his underclassman; a perfectly disciplined, ambitious addition to the First Order. And yet there, in the presence of his domineering father, he always felt like he was five again.

Rose wished she could give Hux’s hand a comforting squeeze; his posture was so taunt, like a bowstring.

“Rose and I are leaving the Order.”

It would have been impossible, Rose thought, for those words to come out of Hux’s mouth back in their freshman year at the Academy, when they’d first met. She’d never seen someone who’d swallowed the Order’s propaganda with such veracity. It was different for her, someone who hadn’t grown up from within the system, but had been selected to attend for her intellect.

They’d been drawn together, she and Hux, when their divisions had collaborated on projects, bonding over their similar love of tech. She’d just been herself, but over the course of their tentative friendship, then relationship, he’d changed quite a lot in her presence. Grown. She was so very proud of him.

“ _That’s_ why you’re here?” Brendol ground out. He set his glass down onto the ornate side table with such force, Rose was surprised it didn’t shatter. “To tell me you’re both committing treason?”

Hux seemed to take hold of his own fury and channel it into the haughty pull of his shoulders. “I’m here to give you a chance,” he said, like he were addressing his subordinates. “One final chance. Tell me. Where did you send her?”

Brendol seemed genuinely taken aback.

“ _What.”_

“Tell me where you sent my mother, after you ordered her away.”

There was a beat of shocked silence.

“She’s dead,” Brendol sneered.

“You’re a liar,” Hux countered stiffly, unimpressed. “No matter. We intend to find her with or without your help.”

The Commandant’s face was getting redder and redder by the second. “All I’ve taught you, so that you could become a truly great Officer worthy of _my name…_ ”

“No. You wanted a test subject for your cadet program, nothing more.”

Anger, white hot, flashed over Brendol’s face. “Everything we ever did for you!” The man roared. “And you’re spitting it back in our faces!”

 _“Everything you ever did for me?”_ Hux’s voice rose an octave in disbelief, sharp as a knife’s edge. His eyebrows jumped up.

“The First Order will restore stability to the Galaxy! Do what the Empire couldn’t! You’re walking away from your destiny, boy! Your birthright!”

Hux’s jaw clenched. He’d never been able to stand up to Brendol like this before; could never conceive of himself doing so. He drew strength from the woman by his side, a force and a marvel in her own right. “The Order was always your dream,” he spat, “never mine.” He had no desire to rule; to lead men into battle. He’d been miscast, all his life. Well, no more.

His father’s voice suddenly grew calm and dangerous. “All the power and knowledge the Order has given you, and you’re going to throw it away for some kitchen whore?” His dull green eyes flickered over to Rose, who was standing a pace behind his son. “For some low-born mechanic and a woman who couldn’t keep her legs closed?”

Hux’s lip curled in distaste. “The Vice Admiral is right. You are a pig.”

Brendol’s mouth flapped open and closed a few times before he started to spit fire.

_“Get out! Get out of my sight, the both of you!”_

Rose tensed at the raw fury now emanating from the Commandant, but all Hux did was incline his head very slightly. “Goodbye, Father.”

Hux turned on his heel to leave, giving Brendol his back. The expression on his face was unreadable to Rose; a stoic mask she hadn’t seen him wear so easily in such a long time. Before she could turn to join him however, she saw how the air around Brendol had changed.

The man’s hands were clenched, energy gathering at his shoulders as he slowly pulled them upward. His eyes were fixed on the back of his son’s head as he took a powerful step forward, fist slowly drawing back.

Rose acted without thinking, stepping between them.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Brendol froze mid-step, arm halfway cocked, pinned by the venom in her voice and the fire in her eyes.

She could feel Hux pause behind her.

“And you,” Brendol sneered. “There’s no denying your raw talent. You’d throw all your potential away for this weak-willed slip of a boy?”

Rose squared her shoulders. “Armitage is more of a man than you’ll ever be. Sir.”

It was apparent the man was rarely spoken to in such a way; he didn’t seem to know how to process it. Over the top of Rose’s head, Hux smirked at his father, expression laced with pride and satisfaction.

“Let’s get out of here,” Rose huffed, grabbing Hux’s hand and leading them out into the entryway. The sound of things breaking in rage following behind them.

They came across Maratelle hovering in the hallway. Rose almost felt sorry for the look in the woman’s eyes— fear. Of her husband, and the sounds of fury he was making in the parlor.

She didn’t say anything though, to either of them, as Rose stepped down from the threshold and onto the walkway, Hux behind her.

Rose slowed, but Hux strode past her, not letting go of her hand.

“Don’t stop,” he muttered, pulling her along and across the square. Rose had to take a few hurried steps to catch back up with him as they made their way with expedience towards the dormitories.

Hux didn’t slow until they’d rounded the corner of their building. Rose smacked into the back of him as he suddenly stalled mid-step.

“Oof,” she grunted. He was like a kriffing wall. She angled around him. “Are you alright?”

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said in a thin voice, rigid and formal, but painfully brittle.

“Are you kidding?” Rounding in front of him, she took both his hands in hers. He tilted his chin down to look at her, catching her gaze with his, pale and green; alight, despite the lilac circles under his eyes. She gripped his fingers. “It’s you and me in this, remember? We’ll find Paige and we’ll find your mother. Together.”

He stared at her for a long, silent moment, and then the corner of his mouth twitched just slightly up. “I do not deserve you.”

“That’s right, you don’t,” she said with a huffing laugh. “But you don’t get to make that choice. I do.”

He shook his head, very slightly. “I love you.” There was a confused awe in his words, as if he still didn’t understand how it were possible

A sly smile came over her mouth, and she let go of his hand to crook her finger at him, beckoning him down. When he was angled far enough forward, she gripped the collar of his uniform, hauling him the rest of the way.

Their lips were so close, that when she spoke, he could very nearly feel her words on his own mouth.

“Our bags are packed and we can be at the spaceport in less than an hour. What do you say, Armitage?” Her grip constricted a degree, alighting something fierce and tight in the pit of his stomach. “Ready to run away with me?”

He caught her lips in a bruising kiss, one arm snaking around her back to pull her flush against his body.

Rose took that as a yes.

**Author's Note:**

> Had so much fun with this prompt! Big thanks to the Gingerose discord for organizing this exchange. 
> 
> Also, fuck Brendol!


End file.
